Spring-form cake pans are used for preparing a variety of bakery goods including, for example, cheesecakes. A spring-form pan generally includes a base and a wall portion. The wall portion is secured to the base to provide a mold or container into which batter or some other edible composition can be placed for baking. Once baking is complete, the wall portion is removed from the base to provide access to the cake. Normally, the wall portion opens in some way, thereby allowing easy removal from the base and easy separation from the baked goods. A wall portion that opens must, of course, include some mechanism for maintaining the wall portion in a closed position and adequately secured to the base so that the uncooked batter does not leak out of the pan.
A variety of mechanisms are known for allowing removal of the wall portion from the base. Latches, clasps, pins, tabs and spring-loaded mechanisms have all been used to releasably secure the wall portion of a pan to a base. The following patents show such mechanisms: U.S. Pat. Nos. 178,105; 572,509; 1,063,144; 1,154,972; 2,259,854; 2,611,250; 2,960,218; 3,107,587; and 3,128,725. The cost for materials and labor to manufacture closure mechanisms vary, but are easily justifiable due to the reusable nature of the pan.
Disposable cake pans have also been designed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,196,777; 3,179,036; 3,191,520; and 3,262,668. None of the pans in these patents include any mechanism for forming an opening in the wall of the pan or any closure mechanism for re-forming the wall portion. In manufacturing a disposable pan, apparently, the cost of providing such closure mechanisms is too great to allow only a single use prior to disposal.
It would be desirable to provide a low cost, easy to manufacture, disposable cake pan wherein the wall portion can be easily separated from the base and also from the baked goods.